Architecture fer dummies

1/10/12

After getting frustrated trying to draw the wall for my studio vocal booth by hand (mainly because I don't have graph paper), I said screw it and cranked this out in Photoshop. I have no idea what real professional wall-drawers use, but I'm sure it ain't Photoshop. But that's what I'm good in, and I just used a 10 pixels = 1 inch scale. I would've done it "full scale", but Photoshop gets very sluggish with 96" wide images. This will all be 2x4 framing with the exception of the chunky 4x4 up top. My handyman advised doing this because I'm not going to attach it to the ceiling, reason being that the ceiling is drywall with glued-up 12"x12" 3/4" thick acoustic celing tiles. Since the wall is at a slight angle (and relatively parallel to the ceiling joists), the only way to create consistent spots to attach it would be to tear out the tiles/drywall and add 2x4 crossmembers between the joists, and I'm really not hip on tearing apart the ceiling. The tiles are probably a million years old and would be really difficult to match, so unless I redid the entire ceiling... well, you get the picture.

As a result, the wall will be attached at the bottom and sides only, which my handyman says should be fine for something this short. Though the door is going to be solid wood, thus kinda heavy, I doubt it'll be getting slammed, and I can't see anyone trying to break into my vocal booth, so it should be ok. Now I have to see if I have can source a pre-hung flat slab door locally with some kind of nice wood finish, which I'm dubious about. I already found great place online, and it was only around a $100, but the shipping tacked on another $75. I have a feeling I'm gonna end up doing that. The window will simply be two pieces of 1/4" glass (two will stop more sound) framed inside the 2x4's with simple wood mouldings (and foam rubber) holding them in place. I'm gonna wait 'til after the framing is built to get those just in case my dimensions aren't spot on.

Now I gotta go to Home Depot and check out the door inventory...